Analysis of failure modes under nano-impact fatigue of coatings via high-speed sampling

Multiple nano-impact testing of coatings has recently been significantly exploited for fatigue testing of hard coatings. Using high-speed sampling, dynamic impact fatigue testing can provide significantly more information about fatigue deformation of coatings during cycling. Here, the additional analysis parameters provided by dynamic impact fatigue have been utilised to uniquely identify delamination (without fracture) and failure during cycling of a sol–gel coating on stainless steel. This has been used to map the evolution of fatigue damage as a function of impact velocity and cycles.